draft
by vesunio
Summary: Just because I don't want them to be lost in the tides of a forgotten voyage...
1. 001

**TAKE ME TO CHURCH**

* * *

**PROLOGUE**

* * *

A New Age has been born, from the bowels of a treacherous Goddess and a titanic hand. Mistakes may be erased from this enormous new book and its fresh pages avoided being splashed with impure ink. The mistakes of all those past lines may be, finally! Eliminated from existence. The filth of the enormous and blood-stained cloth of history will be undone. Each thread, each ink, each stroke will signify peace and incarnated goodness. History as it should have been.

But destiny is never as we wish and there are crucial mistakes and wrong decisions. There are no perfect choices and drafts that can get rid of all the problems, because no matter what happens, no matter how it happens, history will always find a way to be stained. And then, in a never-ending spiral of remorse and bright, extravagant nightmares that torment the nights, Skarlet wanders madly in search of a being and a purpose.

Shao Kahn was born and in the precious dawn many found death. In the intense awakening of Shao Kahn's Empire history found itself lost once again. People die and kingdoms are conquered. There are some girls in particular. A naive princess, a lethal bodyguard, an infernal but willing step-sister and an orphan begging for a better life. Kitana, as well as Jade and Mileena, just like Skarlet, join Shao Kahn's daughters. A New Age arose, and with it, mistakes, changes, and regrets.

Then, alone and discovering the truth, many lament. Skarlet laments.

She would love to change the world. She just doesn't know how.

Shao Kahn dies and with him, many problems and his daughters are orphaned. Beautiful and dressed in mourning is the sun and beautiful but immutable is the moon. Eternal nights and days that advance as if it were never a new day. Wandering alone, perhaps, and only perhaps, there will be a change.

Skarlet may change her own world. But how will she change it?


	2. 002

**BAD GUY**

* * *

**PROLOGUE**

* * *

Cherries. Fiery youthful dreams and charming carnal desires. Pleasures and repulsive people. Oh God, I am so cynical.

So... Are you the bad guy? That big guy, tough, ready to kill and very, very handsome, are you? Well, I was hoping for something else. Don't think bad, in fact, I think you're very, very, very, very handsome. God, you make me so wet. Anyway, anyway, you're a little more innocent than I thought guys like you were. You seem to surrender to me desperately, almost as if you had nowhere to run.

Sometimes when you push me too hard and squeeze me in the sheets while you try to hold yourself together, I wonder who you are. (_Who am I?_). You're the bad guy, but so am I. I'm the bad guy too, you know? I'm that kind of bad guy who isn't very handsome but is ready to break your nose and loves to fuck. Sometimes I wonder if your father was as hot as you. I was thrilled just to think about it.

You're funny, and interesting, but I'm more. You are to die for and you have a most interesting life, money and you treat me like a lady, but I have to make it clear to you that I am not a lady. I'm a _señorita_, actually, and you're a bastard who turns on by pretty girls.

Well, honey, I'm the bad guy.


	3. 003

**INTERLUDE**

* * *

Un profundo y silencioso vistazo a la mente de Skarlet y su punto de vista.

* * *

_Who are you? And why are you alive?_

* * *

Pelear.

Pelear fue lo primero que Skarlet llegó a aprender bien. Pelear, es como... una necesidad básica. Y es lo único que ella sabe hacer. Así que, ella pelea y pelea y pelea. Hay un intenso, eterno pero finito momento en el que ella pelea.

Los primeros días son duros. Hace frío, tiene hambre, no puede ver nada y no importa si llora, si grita, si suplica por ayuda, nadie acude a socorrerla. Los pensamientos le demuelen la cabeza, le hacen papilla los nervios y sus alucinaciones llegan a un punto crítico. Ella sabe que ha perdido el control, ciertamente, pero no sabe qué ha pasado del todo. En realidad, ¡no sabe qué ha pasado! Si perdió la cabeza, si regresó a su ser más básico y estúpido, si finalmente entiende qué sucede. No sabe. No sabe nada. Está frenética y entre esa marea de pensamiento burdos y que lo son todo pero no significan nada se ahoga. Casi loca, casi desquiciada, lucha contra cada una de las grietas de las paredes para salir de ahí. Ella necesita ser libre, ¿que no lo entienden? Sólo permítanle ser libre.

_Sólo permítanme ser libre._

En esa blasfemia de confinamiento no hay nada. No hay a dónde correr y tampoco hay un lugar por el cual habrá llegado. Está encerrada, ahí, para siempre, y probablemente por la eternidad. Pero no se rinde. Lucha y pelea y patalea y se enfrenta a todo lo que le pueda hacer frente. Hoy, justo como ayer, justo como mañana, es un día cualquiera. Sigue sin saber qué está pasando, y tampoco sabe si aún vive.

Ha estado despierta tanto tiempo. Ha sido dejada ahí para morir de hambre, como una asquerosa rata inmunda. Hace mucho que no sabe quién es y qué hace. Si no sabe quién es o qué hace, no come y mucho menos duerme, ¿cómo puede ella saber si aún está viva? A veces cree que es sólo un murmullo que baila en la boca de muchos. A veces, Skarlet simplemente es un demonio habitando entre el Netherealm y su propia cárcel mental.


	4. 004

**TRYING**

* * *

SALTWATER SUN

_It's hard to fight when you are so done!_

I can feel you are trying, sister, I can see it. And I'm so tired with it, it's just exhausting and sickening. Just, please, let me live and stop trying.


	5. 005

**FIRST CHAPTER**

I'd Love to Change the World (but I Don't Know What to Do).

* * *

_"Authority must be obeyed, or it must be overthrown!"_

QUEEN OF HEARTS — Alice: Madness Returns

* * *

Skarlet has tasted Kitana's filthy, hot, stinking breath. She has kissed her terrified lips and has bitten the flesh that sprouts from them in a rosaceous dance. She knows every disgusted sigh that can come out of her mouth and has vomited every time Kitana's nauseating breath has uttered a simple, short word. She has overthrown every order the lady in blue may have said and has competed with her for every single syllable uttered.

Can you imagine how rabid the scarlet killer found herself when the lady in blue rose to the throne of Outworld?

Disgusting, annoying and insulting. That's how uncomfortable that defeat felt. It was, without a doubt, the stupidest, most useless, most repulsive mistake that the idiotic Outworld people could have made. Who cared if it wasn't the people who had chosen it! Just as they love her, just as they stupidly surrender to her disgusting charms, just as they can overthrow her and see her fall. Skarlet will see her fall from the great, stripped throne into a deliciously cruel fall. That stupid, annoying, useless blue lady has joined the green guardian and taken control. And, therefore, the scarlet killer has lost it.

The silent enchantment in which that supposed _Kahn_ rejoices—what disgusting, dirty, repulsive is felt in the palate that blasphemy—is homologous to the endless and incessant misfortune of the orphan. After being defeated by the unpleasant hand of that ungrateful wretch and becoming blind, Shao Khan wandered madly through the sands of oblivion and misery, leaning firmly but shamefully on the shoulders of his orphan. Even without blindness, even on the throne, even bathing in the greatest glory possible in this universe, Skarlet would follow him to the end of time; no reason was needed at all. Because of her, —_because of you, Skarlet_—Shao Kahn was blinded and defeated by that traitor who had seized his throne. If she had been good, if she had been a useful hind to her father without fear of others, if she had been able to kill that stupid woman, clearly things would have been much more favored. Now she had nothing to prove, no one to prove to. Now Skarlet is fragile and vulnerable. Now, dear, useless, stupid idiot Skarlet, you are alone.

But how did Skarlet end up alone and without a father to worship? Because of her, why else would it be? In the middle of the night, where she was supposed to stand guard, a bandit of thieves and street rats attacked them. She remembers all the blood and shudders in silence every time she remembers what her own blood tasted like, remembers how disgusting and nauseating she felt and how dirty she feels today. Skarlet, forever and ever, will remember the massacre and how when her body stopped shaking it was too late for Shao Kahn to face the enemies. Above all, she remembers how exciting and alluring it felt to taste the blood in the water. If it were up to her, she would have them there forever, begging for mercy, for forgiveness, begging for their lives! But... if it were up to her, Shao Khan would still be alive.

Without purpose, without a father to please, without a clear future, Skarlet found perdition itself. There's nowhere to run or hide, no plans for the future, and nothing to try to be proud of. She can no longer prove anything. She advances among the villagers, among the people, getting lost among the cities and pushing the others out of her way with hard and furious hands. It doesn't take long for the soldiers to hear of a woman dressed in red and rabid who advances wounded but determined. No one recognizes her, or so it is supposed, because poor devil who deigns to tell one of the soldiers of Kitana.

The fights are daily. There were pitiful days when she begged for simple bread and a better life, and then there were feasts that tasted glorious and were beautiful. Every one of her whims, every one of her desires had been satiated by her father when he took her under his protective mantle and promised her never to starve again. Now, of course, there are only and only the wounds and hide from Kitana's weak soldiers, after all, if she wants to get rid of her, she must slowly and silently fit her dagger in. She fights constantly and gets blood from people everywhere, but it is never enough — it would only be enough if it were Kitana's blood! But Skarlet sold her soul at the highest price and now her buyer has left her with an even greater debt.

So, here she is, in the middle of the night, in the middle of the Imperial Palace, in the middle of mental freedom and _royal_ confinement. She can clearly hear the pulse of that bitch and her beating heart that dances to the beat of peace before death. Her veins were never more appetizing and her throat never dried so horribly. The end of all her nightmares and the redeeming of all his crimes and stupidities. Walks around her and appreciate how thin the sheets are and how huge the bed is. What a waste. She looks at her with hatred and with too much boredom until she decides.

"Oh, you dirty little traitorous bitch, what a pity that your death is going to be so slow, because you deserve more than that!" Skarlet's whisper is soft, charming but full of poison. "This is as far as your ephemeral Kingdom goes!"

She lifts the dagger and drops it with as much rage as possible on the head of that lady in blue. The inter feels eternal and when it is about to arrive, when she feels her dream come true, something stops her. Kitana's fans stop her and take away one of her daggers. Both get up and get ready. On, please, what fucking courage.

"Mileena!" shouts Kitana in a firm voice.

What the fuck does Mileena have to do here?!

Skarlet throws herself at her in a raging attack and before she can do anything to defend herself, Kitana has been profusely wounded by another Skarlet dagger. There is a horrible, deep side-to-side cut on Kitana's stomach that is invigorating for Skarlet. She can almost taste the warm blood that falls from that wretched one when another is effected on her left cheek. It burns and is too fast. In the midst of darkness, she only recognizes the magenta glow of a pair of knives—not very sure—and a bush of tangled black hair but mediocrely cut.

[...]

A solid, perfect, bloody red dream that tastes delicious and invigorates every single tought of the red Shao Kahn daughter. There a rivers of blood and ridiculous but exciting screams. Acolytes and wine dressed allies. And those who do not surrender, and those who do not cooperate, those ones are massacred. Perfect, bloody red dream that tastes delicious.

But then, a blue cascade shines and deep crystalline glasses that cut her porcelain skin and drowns her. An edenian blue suit and done ugly and useless fans. While she sits on her throne, an indigo shade tries to fight her. And when she is ready to attack again, to take seriously that ridiculous shade, it has embodied. A perfect, bloody red dream that tastes delicious has faded into a deadly blue nightmare.

She has been overthrown!

She fights backs and fights and fights, but that bastard shows her fans proudly and sits on her throne. There's this deep whistle of and endless and furious people and a cruel fist that punches her right in the gut, an ugly and ashamed father and red rubies flowing out of her eyes. _Her _eyes? Who is that person whose reign has been overthrown?

She is coleric and untireable. She will fight until nobody stands alive but her. She cuts deeply and decapitates many civil heads. Her dagger attacks and she slid Kitana's throat many times. She doesn't ever remember them! She fights hardly until a hard hit in the back wakes up her.

She has felled down from the bed and many sheets seem destroyed. What is that? These are sheets, obviously, but why is she in the ground? She looks up, finding a bed. Why was she on a bed?...

A flash and everyhting has gotten worse. Her cheek has a deep cut that looks exactly like a pretty, charming smile.

Mileena...

She, traitorous, horrible witch! She betrayed Shao Kahn, of course, it has to be like that. Of course! That monster is now in the side of that arrogant fake lie named Kitana. But if Mileena is such a happy ray of shitty sunshine, then Skarlet is a boiling piece of rage.

Clearly, of the sheets remained nothing.

[...]

While the first few days are nauseating, they horribly pull Skarlet's nerves and make her throw almost hellish tantrums, no one can know. In her head a million tortures are born and die, but never in her mouth, much less in her expression. There is nothing there but cut porcelain skin and salty rivers that no one can see. Although she is caged on the first clear days—she can go out to eat, bathe, see the beautiful imperial gardens and the boring evenings in the koliseum, but no one can tell her that he is not prey— she is finally released by Kitana, under the strict gaze of Jade and Mileena, who, by the way, seems to have forgotten who she is. She wears a pair of inhuman handcuffs around her wrists and is sure she will be killed to get rid of it. It would be a loving charm for her to be reunited with her father, but a horror and shame to return with dry hands and without the head of the traitors.

To her surprise, she is a fighter. She believes, and hopes so, that she will destroy and slit the throats of a couple of convicts sentenced to death. As soon as she sees where they are going and what they plan to do with her, a grim smile comes out of her already unpainted lips. Looks at Kitana for just a few seconds, but it's more than enough to let her know that Skarlet knows._ I know, your dirty secret._ She feels so proud, and Kitana is a simple hypocrite! Where have all that hatred and contempt for the koliseum and its "brutal and useless" fights gone? Oh, Kitana, you drop that false facade, and you don't fool Skarlet.

They advance cautiously, almost as if they were afraid. Fear, perhaps for people and their possible judgments; fear, perhaps for what Skarlet might do. It's the lower levels than Koliseum, she knows from the repulsive cells and how many poor devils beg and fight in there.

And, when the fight starts, she's ready.

"Round one. Fight!

And of course she's ready.


	6. 006

**CHAPTER TWO**

I'm a Wanted Man (or the Cross of two stories).

* * *

_"One heart is not connected to another through harmony alone. They are, instead, linked deeply through their wounds. Pain linked to pain, fragility to fragility. There is no silence without a cry of grief, no forgiveness without bloodshed, no acceptance without a passage through acute loss. That is what lies at the root of true harmony."_

Haruki Murakami — Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

* * *

Hubo, alguna vez, sueños intensos y mañanas acaloradas. Peleas, sangre, comida y sexo. Fueron los mejores años para Skarlet. Recuerda claramente cómo era enviada a misiones por Shao Khan y cómo era recompensada por cada uno de sus exitosos viajes — completó cada una de sus misiones exitosamente. Recuerda esos deliciosos festines que sabían a gloria y cómo era una de las hijas de Shao Khan más temidas. Y, entre el caluroso y excitante amanecer, recuerda, embriagada pero furiosa, las deseosas noches en compañía de Erron Black.


	7. 007

**EPILOGUE**

* * *

El final, el cierre, el último golpe narrado por nuestra protagonista.

* * *

_Sun has went down over Pompeii..._

* * *

He mirado en los ojos de Medusa. Me he hecho de piedra, petrificada por los bellos orbes de este ser terráqueo; petrificada por las tóxicas cenizas y el rábido grito del Vesubio. Aqui, en esta inmortalizada ciudad humana, me he quedado. Y todo lo que llega a Pompeya se inmortaliza ahí.

Me gusta creer que somos humo. Humo eterno, sucio pero efímero. Creo que ardemos intensamente como el fuego mismo y vagamos en la perdición como el humo mismo, hasta desaparecer. Pero no importa qué tanto hagas, no importa ya si te has extinguido, hay algo sempiterno de ti. Incluso muertos, incluso ya deshechos, hay una parte de nosotros que existirá por la eternidad. Un día, y sólo un día, lo seremos todo.

Yo ya lo he sido todo.

Yo ya fui fuego ardiente. Mis habilidades ya fueron fuego intenso. Mi esclavitud y liberación ya fueron fuego inmenso. Incluso mi devoción por Shao Khan ya ha sido fuego abrasivo. Kuai Liang y yo ya hemos sido fuego violento. Ya lo he sido todo.

Cuando ya lo has sido todo, ya sólo esperas a convertirte en nada. Alguna vez lo fuimos todo y ahora toca ser nada. Espero pacientemente aquí, recargada contra una casa destrozada, viendo al caliente sol ponerse una y otra vez. Los días son todos iguales, sin sentido y expectantes, pero la longeva espera me deleita. Es precioso, de alguna manera. He entendido que el día que estemos listos para dejarlo ir finalmente será cuando seamos nada. Sin cadenas, sin pesos, sin remordimiento ni dolor.

Kuai Liang, no te preocupes. Tengo que saldar cada una de mis deudas, una a una, una tras otra. Nunca tuve el control, en realidad, y espero pacientemente por el instante en el que yo finalmente no tenga nada que deberle a nadie y ya se haya acabado mi nulo control. Soy como una bala perdida mientras no lo logre. Estoy lista para dejarlo ir. Estoy lista para esparcirme y dejar de ser humo.

Estoy lista para dejarlo ir.


End file.
